TWO INDIAN teenagers have been conferred with the prestigious ‘20 Under 20’ Thiel Fellowship
2013, worth $100,000 (£65,591) each, which allows youngsters to pursue their own business idea.
Indian resident Ritesh Agarwal and Pao-Alto based Diwank Singh Tomer will now be mentored by the likes of PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Elon Musk as well as Facebook co-founder Sean Parker as they work on technical projects and learn about entrepreneurship.
The only Indian resident on this list, Agarwal, 19, is the founder of Oravel.com, a site gaining popularity for hotel booking in India.
The youngster who idolises Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg says he has always dreamt of solving large problems using cutting edge new-age technologies.
Now, he wants to use technology to bring affordable and standardised accommodation options to people in emerging economies across the world including India.
As part of the selection process, Agarwal was in the US for three weeks during which he worked closely with Thiel Fellowship team, top Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.
He also presented a paper at the world’s largest tech conference ‘Tech Crunch Disrupt’ in New York.
Agarwal has now managed to allay the concerns of his family that was initially unhappy about his decision to quit studies and turn an entrepreneur.
"After the mentors explained the potential to them, the support I have received from my family is amazing," he said.
Talking about his latest success, Agarwal said, "My acceleration process at VentureNursery (a company that helps start-ups) has been the most vital contributor for this fellowship," he said.
"Intensive acceleration process by a dozen plus mentors and experts led by Ravi Kiran and Shravan Shroff helped me mature from a young passionate founder to a start-up CEO. The support and partnership helped me grow both emotionally and monetarily," Agarwal added.
The other Indian on the list, 19-year-old Tomer, dropped out of college in India to work on an online platform for learning to code.
"Aside from his love of poetry, he is an exceptional hacker and engineer who was awarded the Mozilla WebFWD fellowship for his efforts to improve learning online," the foundation said about Tomer, who now lives in Pao Alto.
The Thiel Fellowship awards a no-strings-attached grant of $100,000 to skip college and focus on work, research and self-education. It was started by Peter Thiel, a German-born American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager who co-founded PayPal and also served as its CEO.
“When we created the fellowship more than two years ago, our intention was to help a small number of creative people learn and accomplish more than they might have otherwise,” said Thiel.
“To their great credit, they have exceeded our expectations, and inspired people of all ages by reminding them that qualities like intellectual curiosity, grit, and determination are more important than a degree in determining success in life,” he added.
“As we welcome a new class of determined young people into the Thiel Fellowship community, we also celebrate the pioneering spirit of our 2011 and 2012 fellows,” said Jonathan Cain, president of the Thiel Foundation.
“Over the past two years, they have launched more than thirty companies, and raised more than $34m (£22m) in outside funding, including venture investments, company sales, revenue, grants, sponsorships, and awards.”
“And now they’re helping the next generation of tech researchers and entrepreneurs by mentoring future cohorts of Thiel fellows,” he said.
